SynthesisNature communications2019
Meta-analysis shows positive effects of plant diversity on microbial biomass and respiration.
Synthesis in Nature communications, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 65 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
65 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Meta-analysis shows that plant mixtures reduce pathogens and invertebrate herbivores and increase plant productivity.Nature communications · 2026Pooled it
- Crop rotation differentially increases soil bacterial and fungal diversities in global croplands: a meta-analysis.Nature communications · 2025Pooled it
- Meta-analysis reveals the effects of microbial inoculants on the biomass and diversity of soil microbial communities.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Pooled it
- Meta-analysis shows that plant mixtures increase soil phosphorus availability and plant productivity in diverse ecosystems.Nature ecology & evolution · 2022Pooled it
- Evaluating the role of biotic and abiotic factors in hardwood tree development in the Central Hardwood Region (CHR).Environmental microbiome · 2026Article
- Terrestrial ecosystem nitrogen cycling in response to field warming: Global patterns and future trends.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Plant diversity's positive effect on soil respiration diminishes with increasing productivity in global forests.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Diameter Class-Dependent Species-Specific Tree-Soil Feedback Linked to Soil Quality BetweenPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Dominant plants drive soil organic carbon storage in three gorges reservoir's water-level fluctuation zone.Carbon balance and management · 2025Article
- Carbon Sequestration, Plant Cover, and Soil Health: Strategies to Mitigate Climate Change.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Storage Potential of Soil Functional Carbon Fractions in the World's Largest Plantations.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Ecological Effects and Microbial Regulatory Mechanisms of Functional Grass Species Assembly in the Restoration of "Heitutan" Degraded Alpine Grasslands.Microorganisms · 2025Article
- Responses of Soil Quality and Microbial Community Composition to Vegetation Restoration in Tropical Coastal Forests.Biology · 2025Article
- Understory shrub diversity: equally vital as overstory tree diversity to promote forest productivity.National science review · 2025Article
- Un(der)explored links between plant diversity and particulate and mineral-associated organic matter in soil.Nature communications · 2025Review
- Impacts of diverse undersown cover crops on seasonal soil microbial properties.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2025Article
- Biodiversity loss disrupts seasonal carbon dynamics in a species-rich temperate grassland.Ecology · 2025Article
- Effects of planting patterns on physicochemical properties, metabolites and microbial community structure of rhizosphere soil in perennial cultivated grassland.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- A novel decomposer-exploiter interaction framework of plant residue microbial decomposition.Genome biology · 2025Article
- Compartment-specific dynamics of soil microbiota along aFrontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
5 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Soil microorganisms are key to biological diversity and many ecosystem processes in terrestrial ecosystems. Despite the current alarming loss of plant diversity, it is unclear how plant species diversity affects soil microorganisms. By conducting a global meta-analysis with paired observations of plant mixtures and monocultures from 106 studies, we show that microbial biomass, bacterial biomass, fungal biomass, fungi:bacteria ratio, and microbial respiration increase, while Gram-positive to Gram-negative bacteria ratio decrease in response to plant mixtures. The increases in microbial biomass and respiration are more pronounced in older and more diverse mixtures. The effects of plant mixtures on all microbial attributes are consistent across ecosystem types including natural forests, planted forests, planted grasslands, croplands, and planted containers. Our study underlines strong relationships between plant diversity and soil microorganisms across global terrestrial ecosystems and suggests the importance of plant diversity in maintaining belowground ecosystem functioning.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.